7 of 12

Poetry: Preaching

by H Brown

"Contribution"

when the basket comes around

I don't want to hear no jingling

you salvation depends on your charity!

If you do not pay I will burn you!

I am speaking to you in God's name

and the sincere sound of my honest voice

will drill through to the pulpy substance

inside all of your dimwit heads!

you WILL go to the fires of eternia

wherein the fleshiest parts of your body

will be set forever ablaze!

it's nothing to laugh at you imbeciles

the Devil will get you anyway he can

he'll make you swallow a fishing hook on a wire

and wait for it at the other end!

just a small parting of some bills to the basket

keep that hook in place...until next week

you all should be ashamed and eat dirt

all of you are weak walking embarrassments

your stupid lips mumbling scripture

Baa! Baa! Baa! like the sheep you are

sheep that get sheared turn into pigs

I see Bible pages glued with maple syrup

all of you are brittle strips of bacon

I want to watch you laugh yourselves to death

let the arena overflow with helium

pray with me like people under a plastic bubble

droning away at our vending-machine God

His infinite ears can be coaxed with money

and He won't waste His time with intellectuals

THUMPA! THUMPA! THUMPA! bang our bibles like drums

our simple strategy is 'kill anyone that's different"

slaughter their bodies to free their trapped souls

armies of Christ carried a sacred heart out of the desert

let us shake our fists at the extraterrestrial beings

who are convinced our ecomony is some kind of sick game

they'll have you believe an antimatter explosion above the Vatican

will summon their jailers from the prisons they escaped from

and the residual MUCK that is left over with turn to clay and take form

willful men will take it and make as many curves as they can with it

and bring their personal favorites to reside in their own houses

but I SAY that in every house there is a closet that bears a demon

a hideous laughing sprite that spits mucus and paints the walls with vomit

crucifixes may be purchased in the gift shop just opposite the rear sacristies

place the PROPER symbols of glorified idolation on bumper stickers

DO NOT FORGET that Satan drives a muscle car that he can ride upside down

he tries to ambush our tour busses in the tunnels but we have SPECIAL RADAR!

YES! Yes-yes-yes! The radar comes to us from filling the basket. WE ALL KNOW IT!

OUR FAITH on the Devil has A DESTRUCTIVE POWER on his SNEAKERY!

Am I saying to you that Satan lurks in slave-labor shoe factories? NO! ! !

SATAN is RUNNING AROUND like LUNATIC in search of something to SET ON FIRE!

BUT! BUT! ! I tell you the combined force of our voices CAN SHATTER GABRIEL'S TRUMPET!

OUR PRAYER can put an end to THE SIXTH GREAT EXTINCTION which HUNTS our CONSCIENCE!

OUR CITIES SHALL TURN TO GRAZING GROUND FOR HORDES OF SHEEP AND PIGS!

HORRIBLE DISEASES WILL COME OUT OF THEIR EXCREMENT THAT WILL CLING TO EVERYTHING!

THE PIGS WILL GORGE THEMSELVES UNTIL THEY ARE SIGHTLESS IN THEIR OWN GLUTTONY

UNTIL AT LONG LAST THE SHEEP SHALL GRUDGINGLY COME FORTH TO DINE ON THE BLIND!

WHEN ONLY A SMATTERING OF SHEEP REMAIN, THE SHEPARD WILL RETURN TO PUNISH THEM!

HIS ROD AND STAFF WILL BEAT THOSE LEFT STANDING, BUT ONLY OF THESE WILL HE CHOOSE!

WHAT I'm telling you IS THAT FOR ONLY THE STRONG IN JESUS DOES THE NEW EDEN AWAIT!

I CAN PROMISE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU HERE THAT THIS IS AN ULTIMATE TRUTH!

FAITH NEEDS TO BE EXERCIZED EVERYDAY FOR IT TO HAVE THAT CRUCIAL FLEXIBILITY!

THOSE WHO TURN THEIR BACKS ON GOD THE FATHER HAVE MADE A MORTAL MISTAKE!

ONE WOULD THINK THAT NOT BELIEVING WOULD BE THE HARDEST TORTURE OF ALL

BUT IT IS HAVING TO WATCH A LOVED ONE THAT HAS TURNED AWAY FROM GOD WHICH IS MOST EXCRUCIATING! ! !

IF YOU HAVE COME HERE TODAY...THEN YOU HAVE TAKEN THE FIRST STEP TOWARD BELIEVING!

SPEND MORE TIME AT THE CHURCH...GREET YOUR LOVED ONES AND FRIENDS...FILL THE BASKETS!

YOU WILL ONLY BE GRANTED SAF PASSAGE FROM THIS WORLD TO THE NEXT if.....

YOU GET IN THERE AND CONFESS EVERY SIN UNTIL NOTHING REMAINS!

AND THEN YOU WILL KNOW FREEDOM!

YOU WILL KNOW LOVE!

AND TOGETHER WE WILL BE SAVED! ! !

Helium, Inc.
200 Brickstone Square Andover, MA 01810 USA